


Somewhere In Between

by Sapphy, SapphyWatchesYouSleep (Sapphy)



Series: Somewhere In Between [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Domestic, Dysfunctional Family, Family, Gen, M/M, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-26
Updated: 2012-10-26
Packaged: 2017-11-17 01:25:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/546017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sapphy/pseuds/Sapphy, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sapphy/pseuds/SapphyWatchesYouSleep
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five years after Stiles abandoned the human world, he's finally ready to try and rebuild his relationship with his dad.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Somewhere In Between

**Author's Note:**

> I'm apparently incapable of causing the Stilinski's pain, because the moment I finished Something's Got To Give I knew I had to make things better between Stiles and his dad. There will probably me more in this verse later.

Stiles smiles at his dad, older and greyer, pottering round the kitchen, making coffee, and finding a plate to put cookies on. He can’t believe it’s been nearly three years since he last saw him. Despite living in the same town, he’s only caught glimpses of him, Stiles fleeing crime scenes as his dad arrived.

 

Avoiding his dad, avoiding the pain that seeing him always brought, had become a habit. He’d kept telling himself ‘later’, or ‘when things are safer’, but he’d realised now that this, a Wendigo in the woods followed by an eight month territory war with a neighbouring pack, is the closest his life is ever likely to come to peaceful. And he’s mature enough now, he thinks, to finally face his father.

 

“I was surprised to see you,” his dad says, sitting down opposite Stiles. He’s got cookies on a plate, and cream in a jug, as though Stiles were a visitor rather than family, and that hurts. “Pleased, of course, but surprised. It’s been so long.”

 

Stiles nods. “I didn’t mean to cut you out,” he says. “There was so much I couldn’t tell you, so much I had to keep secret, that I stopped talking to you just so I wouldn’t have to lie to you. And then there was a moment, four, maybe five, years ago, when we were sitting eating breakfast together, when I realised I didn’t know how to talk to you anymore.”

 

His dad nods, like he knows the feeling. It would hurt, but Stiles’s heart’s already been broken too many times by his dad for there to be any more room in it for more pain.

 

“And I realised then, that I had to choose. One life or the other. You or them. I chose them.” He reaches out to his dad, but stops when he remembers that humans don’t read physical contact the way he does. “I’m sorry for that.”

 

His dad just shakes his head. “Can you tell me now?” he asks.

 

Stiles nods. “That’s why I’m here. When I saw that you’d retired… well there was no reason to keep lying to you anymore. And that’s when I realised how much I missed you. How much I wanted you back in my life.”

 

His dad settles back in his chair, like a man waiting for a good story.

 

“Do you remember dad, when it started? Mine and Scott’s sophomore year, when you found half of Laura Hale’s body in the woods?” His dad grimaces, but nods. “Well the night the body was found, me and Scott went into the woods. To look for the other half.” He shakes his head at his own youthful folly. “We were young and stupid and I hadn’t seen enough of violent death, back then, to be scared of it It was the sort of thoughtless thing I used to do. Hell, still do, though a lot less often now. And there’s usually someone around to stop me.”

 

His dad smiles at him. It’s not the warm, loving smile he remembers, but it’s something.

 

“Scott got bitten that night. By a werewolf.”

 

His dad sits straight up, like he thinks this is all some sick joke, or maybe like he thinks Stiles has gone mad. Stiles pulls out his phone.

 

“I’ve got proof,” he says, handing it over. The photo albums on it are full of pictures of the pack, some human but a lot of them Wolfed out, and even a few of Derek in the full Alpha form he hardly ever uses.

 

His dad scrolls through, his eyes getting wider and wider as he does so.

 

“They’re not CGI,” Stiles says. “I know they look impossible, but they’re real. That’s what I couldn’t tell you. That’s what I lied to you about.”

 

His dad puts down the phone, shaking his head. “But why?”

 

“To protect you. To protect them. Because it’s mad and unbelievable and believe me when I say, werewolves are pretty much the least scary thing out there. I was scared and young and stupid, and I didn’t know how to explain, but most of all I didn’t want you knowing because then you’d be involved. I had nightmares for so long about you being taken by Peter, or the Alpha pack, or Gerard, or even fucking faeries, who are nasty little bastards.”

 

“And now?”

 

“Now you’re retired. You’re not involved any more, not in the same way. And things are better now too. There’s still danger, but the pack is strong. We’re capable of protecting our territory now in a way we weren’t back then.”

 

“You should have told me.”

 

“I know dad. But by the time I felt sure enough of everything, by the time I knew what the fuck was going on, it was too late. I’d… I’d forgotten how to be human. Forgotten how to talk to humans, and I was scared that I’d mess it up, because I didn’t know what I was or where I belonged. So I chose a side, and I chose the pack over the humans. And I’m sorry for that.”

 

“So you’re… you’re a werewolf?”

 

Stiles shook his head. “No. I’m human. Well, I have human DNA. I did ask for the bite, when I first left. But Derek was bright enough to see that I wasn’t asking because I wanted to be a werewolf, but because I was scared of being alone. He told me I wasn’t ready, and he was right. And after, well, I realised that it didn’t matter what species I was. I was part of the pack, even if I wasn’t a wolf. So I stayed human. Being a werewolf kinda sucks.”

 

“And your pack, that’s like a family right?”

 

“Yeah, it is. Kinda. This is one of those things that doesn’t translate into human very well. It’s… it’s more than family and it’s more than friendship. The bond is deeper than that. It’s…” Stiles sighed and scrubbed his hands through his hair. This was why he’d avoided this conversation for so many years. “There really aren’t words. Or if there are, I’ve forgotten them. I’m so used to communicating with werewolves these days, and that’s all about body language.”

 

“That’s why you didn’t talk to me? Because you could only talk in wolf?”

 

“Partly. You’d ask me how I was, and then just accept it when I said I was okay, and even though I knew asking was you showing you cared, and you accepted my answer because it was the normal thing to say, it… stung, I guess. That you needed to ask. That you couldn’t just see how not okay I was.”

 

“And now? You’re okay now?”

 

Stiles nods. “Yeah. I really am. Me and Derek are happy – we’ve been together five years now, which is mad. It feels like about a week. The pack accept me as Alpha, or as part of the Alpha pair at any rate. That took some doing. Peter thinks it might be the first time ever that a human’s been Alpha of a pack. Not that I think of myself as human really. I don’t think they do, either. I know Isaac said the other day that I don’t smell human any more. And we’ve got puppies on the way, which is amazing. Er, not a me and Derek we, a general pack we. Erica’s having the puppies, her and Boyd. But pups are kinda a whole pack event for werewolves, with everyone chipping in to raise them, not just their parents, so we’re all really excited. Oh and, um, you kinda have a granddaughter. Probably should have started with that.”

 

“That her in the photos?” the Sherriff asks.

 

Stiles nods again. He's pretty sure there's only one little girl in the pictures on his phone. “She’s called Suzie. We found her three years ago. Derek gave her the bite ‘cos she was dying and she didn’t have anyone to turn too. We adopted her. Well, I think officially just Derek adopted her, but she calls me daddy. Which is amazing.”

 

Stiles knows he has a big goofy grin on his face, but he doesn’t care. He's young to be a father – and hell, if he was actually Suzie’s father he’d have had to have been fifteen when she was born – but he feels like a real dad. His fridge has macaroni pictures on it, and World’s Best Dad fridge magnets, and he’d helped Suzie to cook Derek breakfast in bed last month, to celebrate the end of the territory war.

 

“The older she gets, the more I appreciate everything you did for me,” he adds. “Being a father is hard work.”

 

“Probably harder when your kid’s a werewolf.”

 

“Easier, actually. Or I think so at least, looking back on what me and Scott were like as kids. Me and Derek are Suzie’s parents, but we’re also her Alphas, so she respects us in a way most kids don’t. Plus, she’s a really good kid. Does her homework with being told and everything.”

 

And wakes up screaming in the night with memories of the things that had happened before they’d taken her in, but those are getting fewer and Stiles knows all about dealing with panic and heartache.

 

“I’d like to meet her,” his father says, and he's looking at Stiles like he's proud of him. It makes Stiles’s heart ache in a way it hasn’t for a very long time.

 

“We’d like that too. She actually asked me last night, when I told her I was coming to see you, if we could maybe meet up for father’s day next week. Just the four of us,” he added quickly. “A chance for you to meet Derek properly, and Suzie. The pack on masse can be kinda intimidating, so we might leave that for a bit. We thought we could maybe go out, you know, neutral territory. Not that that really matters to you, being human and all, but it matters to us. Although I think I saw someone on TV say something about that recently, so maybe it does matter to humans and I’ve forgotten, though it seems a bit weird if it does ‘cos you don’t define territory lines, not properly, so how would you know…”

 

“Stiles,” his dad says, holding up a hand to stem the tide of nervous chatter, “It’s okay. I don’t mind where we meet. I just want to meet your family.”

 

It isn’t the human thing to do, not really, but Stiles can’t resist pulling his dad close and rubbing his cheek against him, leaving his scent on his father. Proof that this had happened, that his dad was back in his life. His dad tolerates it with a smile, and then pulls Stiles into a tight hug. Stiles hugs him back and thinks that being somewhere in the middle, a human in a wolf’s world, and a wolf in a human’s, isn’t so bad.


End file.
